page_title: Griqua people
section_title: Current situation
hierarchical_section_title: Griqua people / Current situation
caption_attribution_description: English: Explanation of South African identity numbers in an identity document during apartheid in terms of official White, Coloured and Indian population subgroups
context_page_description: The Griqua, are a subgroup of Southern Africa's heterogeneous former Khoe-speaking nations, who under apartheid were given a special racial classification under the broader category of "Coloured", who have a unique origin in the early history of the Cape Colony. To understand the Griqua story one has to understand the History of these people who call themselves "Khoikoin" or "Khoin" for short [O'connell, 2013].
  Similar to the Trekboers, another Afrikaans-speaking group at the time, they originally populated the frontiers of the nascent Cape Colony. The men of their semi-nomadic society were mobilised into commando units of mounted gunmen, but chose to leave Dutch society. Also like the Boers, they migrated inland from the Cape, and in the 19th century established several states in what are now South Africa and Namibia.
  During the apartheid era, officialdom classified the Griqua people as "Coloureds", assuming lineage of supposed "mixed-race unions".
context_section_description: Despite similarly mixed-race origins, those Coloured peoples identifying as Basters are considered to be a separate ethnic group and live primarily in south-central Namibia, while those who consider themselves Griqua are mostly located around Campbell and Griquatown in the historic territory of Griqualand West in the Northern Cape; around the small Le Fleur Griqua settlement at Kranshoek in the Western Cape; and at Kokstad in KwaZulu-Natal.
  Due primarily to the racial policies of South Africa during the apartheid era, many Griqua people accepted classification in the larger "Coloured" group for fear that their Griqua roots might place them at a lower level than other groups. As a result, estimates of the size of the Griqua population are difficult to determine and remain largely unknown.
  Genetic evidence indicates that the majority of the present-day Griqua population is descended from a combination of European, Khoikhoi and Tswana ancestors, with a small percentage of San, or Bushmen, ancestry.
  Griqua people are represented by the National Khoisan Consultative Conference (Afrikaans: Nasionale Khoe-San Oorlegplegende Konferensie), which was established in Oudtshoorn in 2001 to represent the interests of South Africa's Khoisanid peoples. The conference participates in cooperative research and development projects with the provincial government of the Western Cape and the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein. Members of the influential Le Fleur clan of Griqua are especially represented in this body.
  The Griqua have also established their own church, known as the Griqua Church, which is Protestant. The Church has a strong focus on maintaining Griqua cultural and ethnic identity.They are represented mostly in South Central Namibia.
  One of several disputed theories as to the origin of Bloemfontein's name connects it to the Griqua leader Jan Bloem (1775–1858). However, this may be a coincidence as Bloemfontein is Dutch for "fountain of flowers", or "blooming fountain", and the area could have been named for its local vegetation.
caption: "Griqua" listed as a separate ethnicity from "Cape Coloured" and "Other Coloured" on an apartheid-era identity document.
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